Multi-carrier communication device and feedback information communication method

ABSTRACT

A multicarrier communication apparatus that is capable of suppressing interference of feedback information with other channels and alleviating a reduction in an uplink capacity. In PL signal reception section ( 260 ) of this apparatus, PL signal extraction section ( 261 ) extracts pilot signals and reception quality measuring section ( 262 ) measures reception quality such as an SIR. Here, since pilot signals are included in respective subcarriers, reception quality measuring section ( 262 ) measures reception quality of subcarriers. FBSC determining section ( 270 ) determines a feedback information subcarrier based on the reception quality of subcarriers. More specifically, FBSC determining section ( 270 ) determines a subcarrier having the highest reception quality as a feedback information subcarrier. FBSC determining section ( 270 ) outputs information about the feedback information subcarrier (FBSC information) to control CH transmission section ( 110 ) and FB information reception section ( 250 ).

TECHNICAL FIELD

The present invention relates to a multicarrier communication apparatusand feedback information communication method.

BACKGROUND ART

In recent years, for example, multimedia data is being increasinglydistributed and broadband for downlinks in particular is being studiedfrequently (e.g., see Non-Patent Document 1). Non-Patent Document 1discusses downlink high-speed packet transmission adopting an OFDM(Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing) scheme which is consideredas a promising communication scheme to be used for a next-generationradio communication system. The OFDM scheme is one of multicarriercommunication schemes and a technology for transmitting data mapped on aplurality of subcarriers and has advantages such as strong resistance tofrequency selective fading.

Furthermore, as a high-speed packet transmission on a downlink, an HSDPA(High Speed Downlink Packet Access) standard is being developed by the3GPP (3rd Generation Partnership Project). Adaptive modulation,scheduling and HARQ (Hybrid Automatic Repeat reQuest) are indispensabletechnologies for the HSDPA standard.

Adaptive modulation in HSDPA is a technology for a base stationapparatus to transmit data to a mobile station apparatus by changing,for example, a modulation scheme and coding rate (MCS: Modulation andCoding Scheme) according to channel quality and thereby making atransmission rate variable. When the base station apparatus changes anMCS, an optimum MCS is selected based on an index of channel quality(CQI: Channel Quality Indicator) reported from the mobile stationapparatus (e.g., see Non-Patent Document 2).

Furthermore, HARQ is a technology for a mobile station apparatus to sendan ACK/NACK indicating whether or not data has been received from a basestation apparatus normally and for the base station apparatus to controlretransmission by receiving the ACK/NACK. When sending feedbackinformation such as CQI or ACK/NACK described above, the mobile stationapparatus sends the feedback information with transmit power with apredetermined offset set, for example, in a DPCCH (Dedicated PhysicalControl Channel) (e.g., see Non-Patent Document 3).

The feedback information includes important information whichconstitutes an element to control downlink transmission at a basestation apparatus and needs to be received by the base station apparatusaccurately. Therefore, this feedback information maybe transmitted withrelatively high transmit power. As for ACK/NACK in particular, in orderto improve the efficiency of data retransmission, a required BER (biterror rate) required from the base station apparatus is high and a highoffset is set for a DPCCH.

Non-Patent Document 1: “Experiment Result of Packet Combination TypeHybrid ARQ in Downlink VSF-OFCDM Broadband Radio Access” Miki, Abeta,Higuchi, Atarashi, Sawabashi, pp. 15-pp. 22, TECHNICAL REPORT OF IEICERCS2003-26, 2003-05.

Non-Patent Document 2: 3GPP TR25.858 V5.0.0 “HSDPA physical layeraspects” (2002-03).

Non-Patent Document 3: 3GPP TS25.213 V5.4.0 “Spreading and Modulation(FDD).”

DISCLOSURE OF INVENTION PROBLEMS TO BE SOLVED BY THE INVENTION

However, the above-described conventional technologies have such aproblem that feedback information such as CQI and ACK/NACK producesconsiderable interference with other channels on an uplink, causing areduction of the uplink capacity. That is, since the feedbackinformation has relatively high transmission power, it constitutes alarge interference component against other channels and tightens theuplink capacity.

Furthermore, when a mobile station apparatus is located near a cellboundary, transmission of feedback information particularly increasesinterference with an adjacent cell. When interference with the adjacentcell is strong, the transmission efficiency in the adjacent celldecreases consequently and throughput of the overall radio communicationsystem decreases. These problems likewise occur also to an OFDM schemewhich is expected to take on the next-generation radio communicationsystem.

It is an object of the present invention to provide a multicarriercommunication apparatus and feedback information communication methodcapable of suppressing interference of feedback information with otherchannels and alleviating a reduction of a channel capacity.

MEANS FOR SOLVING THE PROBLEM

A multicarrier communication apparatus according to the presentinvention comprises a reception section that receives a multicarriersignal with data mapped on a plurality of carriers, a measuring sectionthat measures reception quality of the plurality of carriers and adetermining section that determines a carrier having the best measuredreception quality as a feedback information carrier.

ADVANTAGEOUS EFFECT OF THE INVENTION

According to the present invention, it is possible to suppressinterference of feedback information with other channels and alleviate areduction of a channel capacity.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of a base stationapparatus according to Embodiment 1 of the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing the detailed configuration of the basestation apparatus according to Embodiment 1;

FIG. 3 is block diagram showing another detailed configuration of thebase station apparatus according to Embodiment 1;

FIG. 4 is a block diagram showing the configuration of a mobile stationapparatus according to Embodiment 1;

FIG. 5 is a block diagram showing the detailed configuration of themobile station apparatus according to Embodiment 1;

FIG. 6 illustrates the operation of the base station apparatus accordingto Embodiment 1;

FIG. 7 is a sequence diagram illustrating other operations of the basestation apparatus according to Embodiment 1;

FIG. 8 is a block diagram showing the configuration of a base stationapparatus according to Embodiment 2 of the present invention;

FIG. 9 is a flow chart showing the operation of the base stationapparatus according to Embodiment 2;

FIG. 10 is a block diagram showing the configuration of a base stationapparatus according to Embodiment 3 of the present invention;

FIG. 11 is a block diagram showing the configuration of a mobile stationapparatus according to Embodiment 3;

FIG. 12 is a block diagram showing the configuration of a base stationapparatus according to Embodiment 4 of the present invention; and

FIG. 13 is a block diagram showing the configuration of a mobile stationapparatus according to Embodiment 4.

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION

Now, embodiments of the present invention will be described in detailwith reference to the accompanying drawings below. Note that though acommunication based on an OFDM (Orthogonal Frequency DivisionMultiplexing) scheme using a plurality of subcarriers of frequenciesorthogonal to one another will be explained as an example ofmulticarrier communication, the present invention is applicable to anycommunication in which transmission is carried out with data mapped on aplurality of carriers.

Embodiment 1

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of a base stationapparatus according to Embodiment 1 of the present invention. The basestation apparatus shown in FIG. 1 is provided with control CH (CHannel)transmission section 110, user CH transmission section 120, multiplexingsection 130, S/P (Serial/Parallel) conversion section 140, IFFT (InverseFast Fourier Transform) section 150, GI (Guard Interval) insertionsection 160, radio transmission section 170, radio reception section210, GI elimination section 220, FFT (Fast Fourier Transform) section230, P/S (Parallel/Serial) conversion section 240, FB (FeedBack)information reception section 250, PL (PiLot) signal reception section260 and FBSC (FeedBack Sub-Career: subcarrier for feedback information)determining section 270.

Control CH transmission section 110 carries out coding and modulation oncontrol data such as assignment information indicating a destination ofuser data and information about feedback information subcarrier(hereinafter referred to as “FBSC information”) output from FBSCdetermining section 270 which will be described later. Morespecifically, as shown in FIG. 2, control CH transmission section 110carries out coding control data and FBSC information by coding section111 and modulation by modulation section 112 and outputs them tomultiplexing section 130.

User CH transmission section 120 carries out adaptive modulationaccording to downlink channel quality on user data such as high-speedpacket data and controls retransmission.

More specifically, as shown in FIG. 3, user CH transmission section 120determines an MCS (Modulation and Coding Scheme) by MCS determiningsection 124 based on a CQI (Channel Quality Indicator) output fromdecoding section 253 which will be described later, carries out codingand modulation at a coding rate and under a modulation schemecorresponding to the determined MCS by coding section 121 and modulationsection 123 respectively. Furthermore, user CH transmission section 120temporarily stores user data previously transmitted by retransmissioncontrol section 122 and retransmits the stored user data when a NACK isoutput from decoding section 253, which will be described later.

Multiplexing section 130 multiplexes control data and user data andoutputs the obtained multiplexed data to S/P conversion section 140.

S/P conversion section 140 S/P-converts the multiplexed data and outputsthe same number of pieces of parallel data as subcarriers to IFFTsection 150.

IFFT section 150 carries out an inverse fast Fourier transform on theparallel data, maps data on subcarriers of frequencies orthogonal to oneanother and outputs the obtained OFDM data to GI insertion section 160.

GI insertion section 160 inserts a guard interval by copying an endportion of the OFDM data to a start portion of this OFDM data.

Radio transmission section 170 carries out predetermined radiotransmission processing (D/A conversion, up-conversion or the like) onthe OFDM data after the insertion of the guard interval and transmitsthe OFDM data to a mobile station apparatus through an antenna.

Radio reception section 210 receives a signal from the mobile stationapparatus through the antenna and carries out predetermined radioreception processing (down-conversion, A/D conversion or the like).

GI elimination section 220 eliminates a guard interval inserted in thereceived signal.

FFT section 230 carries out a fast Fourier transform on the receivedsignal after the elimination of the guard interval and outputs obtaineddata of subcarriers to P/S conversion section 240. Furthermore, FFTsection 230 outputs data of the feedback information subcarrier out ofthe data of subcarriers to FB information reception section 250.

P/S conversion section 240 P/S-converts the data of subcarriers andoutputs serial data to PL signal reception section 260.

FB information reception section 250 decodes feedback information fedback using a subcarrier determined by FBSC determining section 270 whichwill be described later and outputs a CQI and ACK/NACK necessary fortransmission of user data to user CH transmission section 120. Morespecifically, as shown in FIG. 3, FB information extraction section 251of FB information reception section 250 extracts the data of thesubcarrier determined as the feedback information subcarrier by FBSCdetermining section 270, which will be described later, out of the dataof subcarriers. Furthermore, demodulation section 252 demodulates thefeedback information, and decoding section 253 decodes the feedbackinformation, outputs a CQI included in the feedback information to MCSdetermining section 124 and outputs an ACK/NACK to retransmissioncontrol section 122.

PL signal reception section 260 extracts known pilot signals included inthe received signal, measures reception quality and outputs it to FBSCdetermining section 270. More specifically, PL signal extraction section261 of PL signal reception section 260 extracts pilot signals andreception quality measuring section 262 measures reception quality suchas an SIR (Signal to Interference Ratio). Here, a pilot signal isincluded in subcarriers, and therefore reception quality measuringsection 262 measures reception quality of subcarriers.

FBSC determining section 270 determines a feedback informationsubcarrier based on reception quality of subcarriers. More specifically,FBSC determining section 270 determines a subcarrier having the highestreception quality as a feedback information subcarrier. FBSC determiningsection 270 then outputs information about the feedback informationsubcarrier (FBSC information) to control CH transmission section 110 andFB information reception section 250. A subcarrier number of thefeedback information subcarrier, for example, is used as the FBSCinformation.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram showing the configuration of a mobile stationapparatus according to this embodiment. The mobile station apparatusshown in FIG. 4 is provided with radio reception section 310, GIelimination section 320, FFT section 330, P/S conversion section 340,control CH reception section 350, user CH reception section 360, PLsignal reception section 370, FB information transmission section 410,multiplexing section 420, SC (Sub-Career) assignment section 430, S/Pconversion section 440, IFFT section 450, GI insertion section 460 andradio transmission section 470.

Radio reception section 310 receives a signal from the base stationapparatus through an antenna and carries out predetermined radioreception processing (down-conversion, A/D conversion or the like).

GI elimination section 320 eliminates a guard interval inserted in thereceived signal.

FFT section 330 carries out a fast Fourier transform on the receivedsignal after the elimination of the guard interval and outputs theobtained data of subcarriers to P/S conversion section 340.

P/S conversion section 340 P/S-converts the data of subcarriers andoutputs serial data to control CH reception section 350, user CHreception section 360 and PL signal reception section 370.

Control CH reception section 350 demodulates and decodes control dataand FBSC information included in the serial data output from P/Sconversion section 340. More specifically, as shown in FIG. 5, controlCH reception section 350 extracts control information such as controldata and FBSC information by control information extraction section 351,demodulates and decodes the extracted control information bydemodulation section 352 and decoding section 353 respectively, outputscontrol data and outputs FBSC information to SC assignment section 430.

User CH reception section 360 demodulates and decodes user data includedin serial data output from P/S conversion section 340. Morespecifically, as shown in FIG. 5, user CH reception section 360 extractsuser information such as user data by user information extractionsection 361, demodulates and decodes the extracted user information bydemodulation section 362 and decoding section 363 respectively andperforms error detection of user data by error detection section 364using error detection by means of, for example, CRC (Cyclic RedundancyCheck) codes or the like.

PL signal reception section 370 measures reception quality of knownpilot signals included in the serial data output from P/S conversionsection 340. More specifically, as shown in FIG. 5, PL signal receptionsection 370 extracts pilot signals by PL signal extraction section 371,measures reception quality such as an SIR by reception quality measuringsection 372 and outputs the measurement result to CQI generation section411 which will be described later.

FB information transmission section 410 transmits feedback informationsuch as CQI and ACK/NACK. More specifically, FB information transmissionsection 410 generates a CQI according to the reception qualitymeasurement result of pilot signals by CQI generation section 411,performs coding and modulation by coding section 413 and modulationsection 415 respectively and outputs the pilot signals to multiplexingsection 420. Furthermore, FB information transmission section 410generates an ACK or NACK according to the error detection result of userdata by ACK/NACK generation section 412, performs coding and modulationby coding section 414 and modulation section 416 respectively andoutputs the ACK or NACK to multiplexing section 420.

Multiplexing section 420 multiplexes the CQI and ACK/NACK with othertransmission data (not shown) and outputs the obtained multiplexed datato SC assignment section 430.

SC assignment section 430 assigns a subcarrier specified by the FBSCinformation to the multiplexed data including the feedback information.

S/P conversion section 440 carries out S/P conversion so that themultiplexed data including the feedback information is mapped on thesubcarrier assigned by SC assignment section 430 and outputs the samenumber of pieces of parallel data as subcarriers to IFFT section 450.

IFFT section 450 carries out an inverse fast Fourier transform on theparallel data, maps data on subcarriers of frequencies orthogonal to oneanother and outputs the OFDM data obtained to GI insertion section 460.

GI insertion section 460 inserts a guard interval by copying an endportion of the OFDM data to a start portion of this OFDM data.

Radio transmission section 470 carries out predetermined radiotransmission processing (D/A conversion, up-conversion or the like) onthe OFDM data after the insertion of the guard interval and transmitsthe OFDM data to the base station apparatus.

Next, the operations of the base station apparatus and mobile stationapparatus configured as shown above will be explained.

First, the operation after a feedback information subcarrier isdetermined by the base station apparatus until FBSC information istransmitted will be explained.

A signal received by the base station apparatus includes a known pilotsignal for subcarriers, pilot signals are extracted by PL signalextraction section 261 and reception quality is measured by receptionquality measuring section 262. Then, FBSC determining section 270determines a subcarrier including a pilot signal of the highestreception quality as a feedback information subcarrier. Thus determinedfeedback information subcarrier (FBSC) is a subcarrier having an optimumpropagation state of frequency selective fading as shown in FIG. 6 orsubcarrier having the small amount of interference from other cells anda frequency band of good reception quality. Therefore, when the mobilestation apparatus transmits feedback information using the feedbackinformation subcarrier, it is possible to satisfy required quality offeedback information generally having strict requirements withrelatively low transmit power.

Then, the feedback information subcarrier number or the like is outputto coding section 111 in control CH transmission section 110 and FBinformation extraction section 251 in FB information reception section250 as FBSC information.

Since the FBSC information is output to FB information extractionsection 251, the subcarrier on which the next feedback information to bereported from the mobile station apparatus is mapped is already-known tothe base station apparatus. Therefore, FB information extraction section251 is capable of easily selecting the subcarrier on which the feedbackinformation is mapped and extracting the feedback information.

On the other hand, the FBSC information output to coding section 111 iscoded together with control data, modulated by modulation section 112and output to multiplexing section 130.

Furthermore, the user data is coded by coding section 121 andtemporarily stored by retransmission control section 122. When an ACK isoutput from decoding section 253 in FB information reception section250, this user data is output to modulation section 123 and when a NACKis output from decoding section 253, the previously transmitted userdata is output to modulation section 123. That is, when the previouslytransmitted user data is correctly received by the mobile stationapparatus, new user data is output and when the previously transmitteduser data is not correctly received (that is, lost in the propagationpath or the error detection result is very bad), the previouslytransmitted user data is output.

Furthermore, the user data is modulated by modulation section 123 andoutput to multiplexing section 130. Coding by coding section 121 andmodulation by modulation section 123 are performed at a coding rate andunder a modulation scheme corresponding to the MCS determined by MCSdetermining section 124.

The FBSC information, control data and user data are multiplexed bymultiplexing section 130, S/P-converted by S/P conversion section 140,subjected to an inverse fast Fourier transform by IFFT section 150 andthereby transformed into OFDM data. A guard interval is inserted intothe OFDM data by GI insertion section 160, subjected to predeterminedradio transmission processing by radio transmission section 170 andtransmitted to the mobile station apparatus via the antenna.

Next, the operation after a signal is received by the mobile stationapparatus until feedback information is sent will be explained.

The signal sent from the base station apparatus is received by radioreception section 310 via the antenna of the mobile station apparatusand subjected to predetermined radio reception processing. The guardinterval of the received signal is removed by GI elimination section320, the received signal is subjected to a fast Fourier transform by FFTsection 330 and P/S-converted by P/S conversion section 340 into serialdata.

Control information including FBSC information and control data areextracted by control information extraction section 351 in control CHreception section 350 from the serial data and demodulated and decodedby demodulation section 352 and decoding section 353 respectively. TheFBSC information of the decoding result is output to SC assignmentsection 430.

Furthermore, user information including user data is extracted from theserial data by user information extraction section 361 in user CHreception section 360, demodulated and decoded by demodulation section362 and decoding section 363 respectively and subjected to errordetection by error detection section 364 using, for example, CRC. Theerror detection result is output to ACK/NACK generation section 412 inFB information transmission section 410.

Furthermore, known pilot signals included in the serial data areextracted by PL signal extraction section 371 in PL signal receptionsection 370 and reception quality such as SIR is measured by receptionquality measuring section 372. The measurement result is output to CQIgeneration section 411 in FB information transmission section 410.

A CQI is generated by CQI generation section 411 according to themeasurement result of reception quality, coded and modulated by codingsection 413 and modulation section 415 respectively and output tomultiplexing section 420.

Furthermore, when the error detection result is good, an ACK isgenerated by ACK/NACK generation section 412, and on the contrary whenthe error detection result is bad, a NACK is generated and an ACK and aNACK are coded and modulated by coding section 414 and modulationsection 416 respectively and output to multiplexing section 420.

Feedback information including these CQI and ACK/NACK is multiplexedwith other transmission data (not shown) by multiplexing section 420 andassigned a subcarrier by SC assignment section 430. The subcarrierassigned to the feedback information by SC assignment section 430 is thesubcarrier specified by the FBSC information sent from the base stationapparatus. In other words, the subcarrier assigned to the feedbackinformation is the subcarrier having an optimum propagation state.

The multiplexed data including feedback information is thenS/P-converted by S/P conversion section 440, and at this time thefeedback information is S/P-converted so as to be mapped on thesubcarrier assigned by SC assignment section 430 and the same number ofpieces of parallel data as subcarriers are output to IFFT section 450.The output parallel data is subjected to an inverse fast Fouriertransform by IFFT section 450, transformed into OFDM data, inserted aguard interval by GI insertion section 460, subjected to predeterminedradio transmission processing by radio transmission section 470 andtransmitted to the base station apparatus via the antenna.

Here, when the feedback information is transmitted, it is general thattransmit power control is performed so as to satisfy required quality.Since the feedback information is such important information thatdirectly influences the throughput of the overall radio communicationsystem, its required quality is normally high and transmit power thereofalso needs to be increased. However, in this embodiment, since thefeedback information is mapped on a subcarrier having an optimumpropagation state specified by the base station apparatus, the transmitpower of this subcarrier needs not be so high. Therefore, it is possibleto suppress interference of the feedback information about otherchannels and other cells.

Finally, the operation of receiving the feedback information by the basestation apparatus will be explained.

A signal sent from the mobile station apparatus is received by radioreception section 210 through the antenna of the base station apparatusand subjected to predetermined radio reception processing. The guardinterval of the received signal is removed by GI elimination section 220and the received signal is subjected to a fast Fourier transform by FFTsection 230 and data of subcarriers is output.

Of these subcarriers, the subcarrier on which the feedback informationis mapped by FB information extraction section, 251 in FB informationreception section 250 is selected, and the feedback information isextracted and demodulated and decoded by demodulation section 252 anddecoding section 253 respectively. At this time, as described above, FBinformation extraction section 251 stores FBSC information about thefeedback information subcarrier determined by FBSC determining section270 and therefore, can easily select the feedback informationsubcarrier.

The result of decoding by decoding section 253 includes CQI and ACK/NACKwhich are the feedback information. The CQI of them is output to MCSdetermining section 124 in user CH transmission section 120 and anoptimum MCS in accordance with reception quality is selected by MCSdetermining section 124. On the other hand, the ACK/NACK is output toretransmission control section 122 in user CH transmission section 120and any one of user data which was transmitted previously and new userdata is output by retransmission control section 122 and theretransmission is controlled.

Furthermore, data of subcarriers output from FFT section 230 isP/S-converted by P/S conversion section 240, the obtained serial data isoutput to PL signal extraction section 261 in PL signal receptionsection 260. Then, a known pilot signal included in subcarriers isextracted by PL signal extraction section 261 and reception quality ofthe pilot signal of subcarriers is measured by reception qualitymeasuring section 262.

Hereinafter, the above described operations are repeated and a feedbackinformation subcarrier is determined again and this feedback informationsubcarrier is used and feedback information is sent from the mobilestation apparatus.

The above-described explanations have been given on an assumption thatthe base station apparatus transmits FBSC information, control data anduser data simultaneously, but these are not need to be transmittedsimultaneously.

The amount of control data is generally small, and on the contrary theamount of user data is large, and therefore it may take more time tocarry out demodulation and decoding of user data than demodulation anddecoding of control data. Furthermore, feedback information such as CQIand ACK/NACK is generated based on a result of decoding of user data.

Despite such a situation, when FBSC information, control data and userdata are transmitted simultaneously, the propagation state at the timewhen the feedback information subcarrier is determined differs greatlyfrom the propagation state at the time when the actual feedbackinformation is transmitted and the feedback information subcarrier mayno longer be a subcarrier for an optimum propagation path. For thisreason, when the feedback information is actually transmitted, necessarytransmit power may be increased.

Therefore, for example, as shown in FIG. 7, it is possible to transmitcontrol data and user data at timings t1 and t2 on one hand and transmitFBSC information at timing t3 on the other. The mobile station apparatustakes time (t4-t2) from demodulation and decoding of user data totransmission of feedback information, while no more than time (t4-t3)for demodulation and decoding of the FBSC information, and thetherefore, feedback information subcarrier can be used to transmit thefeedback information. Furthermore, by delaying the timing at which thebase station apparatus transmits FBSC information (furthermore, timingat which the feedback information subcarrier is determined) to themaximum extent possible, it is possible to select a subcarrier whichreflects the latest propagation state.

Thus, according to this embodiment, the base station apparatusdetermines a subcarrier having the highest reception quality as afeedback information subcarrier, transmits FBSC information about thesubcarrier to the mobile station apparatus. And the mobile stationapparatus transmits feedback information such as CQI and ACK/NACK mappedon the feedback information subcarrier. Therefore, this embodiment cansuppress an increase in transmit power of feedback information havinghigh required quality, suppress interference of the feedback informationwith other channels and other cells and alleviate a reduction in thechannel capacity.

Embodiment 2

Embodiment 2 of the present invention is characterized in that a basestation apparatus which transmits user data to a plurality of mobilestation apparatuses, preferentially assigns a subcarrier in a goodpropagation state to a mobile station apparatus having the large amountof user data to be transmitted from the base station apparatus and usesthe subcarrier as a feedback information subcarrier.

FIG. 8 is a block diagram showing the configuration of the base stationapparatus according to Embodiment 2. In FIG. 8, the same parts as thosein FIG. 1 are assigned the same reference numerals and explanationsthereof will be omitted. The base station apparatus shown in FIG. 8 isprovided with control CH transmission section 110, user CH transmissionsection 120, multiplexing section 130, S/P conversion section 140, IFFTsection 150, GI insertion section 160, radio transmission section 170,radio reception section 210, GI elimination section 220, FFT section230, P/S conversion section 240, FB information reception section 250,PL signal reception section 260, FBSC determining section 270 a and dataamount measuring section 500. In this embodiment, in order to transmitcontrol data and user data to a plurality of mobile station apparatuses,the base station apparatus includes the same number of control CHtransmission sections 110, user CH transmission sections 120, FBinformation reception sections 250 and PL signal reception sections 260as users (here 2 users). The internal configurations of these processingsections are the same as those in Embodiment 1 (FIG. 2 and FIG. 3), andtherefore explanations thereof will be omitted.

FBSC determining section 270 a determines a feedback informationsubcarrier based on reception quality of subcarriers and the amount ofuser data directed to each user. More specifically, the feedbackinformation subcarrier is preferentially assigned to a mobile stationapparatus having the largest amount of user data to be transmitted fromthe base station apparatus. That is, FBSC determining section 270 abasically assigns a subcarrier having the highest reception quality toeach mobile station apparatus, but when the reception quality of thesame subcarrier is highest for a plurality of mobile stationapparatuses, this subcarrier is used as the feedback informationsubcarrier for the mobile station apparatus having the largest amount ofdata. In this case, the other mobile station apparatuses are assignedsubcarriers of the next highest reception quality for the respectivemobile station apparatuses.

FBSC determining section 270 a outputs the information (FBSCinformation) about the feedback information subcarriers assigned to therespective mobile station apparatuses to control CH transmissionsections 110 and FB information reception sections 250 corresponding totheir respective mobile station apparatuses. As the FBSC information,for example, the subcarrier numbers of the feedback informationsubcarriers are used.

Data amount measuring section 500 measures the amount of user data to betransmitted from the base station apparatus to mobile stationapparatuses. In this embodiment, user data is transmitted to two mobilestation apparatuses, and therefore, data amount measuring section 500measures the amounts of data such as user data #1 and user data #2.Furthermore, data amount measuring section 500 ranks the mobile stationapparatuses in descending order of the amount of user data to betransmitted from the base station apparatus and reports the rankingresult to FBSC determining section 270 a.

Since the configuration of the mobile station apparatus according tothis embodiment is similar to that of Embodiment 1 (FIG. 4 and FIG. 5),explanations thereof will be omitted.

Next, the operation of assigning feedback information subcarriers by thebase station apparatus configured as shown above will be explained withreference to the flow chart shown in FIG. 9. Note that the followingexplanations assume that the base station apparatus shown in FIG. 8transmits user data to N mobile station apparatuses.

First, data amount measuring section 500 measures the amount of userdata to be transmitted from the base station apparatus to N mobilestation apparatuses and ranks the user data in descending order of theamount of data (ST1000). As a result of the ranking, the mobile stationapparatus having the maximum amount of data is designated as mobilestation apparatus 1. On the contrary, the mobile station apparatushaving the minimum amount of data is designated as mobile stationapparatus N.

This ranking result is reported to FBSC determining section 270 a. Theoperation of determining a feedback information subcarrier by FBSCdetermining section 270 a will be explained below.

First, parameter i and parameter j are initialized to 1 (ST1100,ST1200). Then, the subcarrier in an optimum propagation state (the bestsubcarrier) to be used by mobile station apparatus 1 is searched basedon reception quality of subcarriers output from PL signal receptionsection 260 corresponding to mobile station apparatus 1 (ST1300).

Then, it is decided whether or not the best subcarrier searched hasalready been assigned to other mobile station apparatuses (ST1400), butsince no subcarriers have been assigned to the mobile station apparatusyet here, mobile station apparatus 1 is assigned this subcarrier in anoptimum propagation state as the feedback information subcarrier(ST1500).

When the feedback information subcarrier of mobile station apparatus 1is determined, parameter i is compared with parameter N, and it isthereby decided whether or not feedback information subcarriers havebeen determined for all the N mobile station apparatuses (ST1600).

When the feedback information subcarriers for all the mobile stationapparatuses have not been determined yet, parameter i is incremented by1 (ST1700) and assignment of a subcarrier to mobile station apparatus 2is started.

That is to say, the subcarrier in an optimum propagation state (the bestsubcarrier) to be used by mobile station apparatus 2 is searched basedon reception quality of subcarriers output from PL signal receptionsection 260 corresponding to mobile station apparatus 2 (ST1300)

Then, it is decided whether or not the best subcarrier searched hasalready been assigned to any other mobile station apparatus (here,mobile station apparatus 1) (ST1400) and if the best subcarrier hasalready been assigned to mobile station apparatus 1, parameter j isincremented by 1 (ST1800).

Then, the second best subcarrier is searched based on reception qualityof subcarriers used by mobile station apparatus 2 (ST1300) and it isdecided whether or not the second best subcarrier has already beenassigned to any other mobile station apparatus (mobile station apparatus1) (ST1400).

In this way, by deciding on mobile station apparatuses in descendingorder of propagation states of subcarriers as to whether or not thesubcarriers have already been assigned as feedback informationsubcarriers to other mobile station apparatuses, the subcarrier in anoptimum propagation state out of the subcarriers which have not beenassigned to any other mobile station apparatus is designated as thefeedback information subcarrier. Furthermore, prior to the determinationof the feedback information subcarrier, data amount measuring section500 ranks mobile station apparatuses in accordance with the amount ofdata and determines the above described feedback information subcarrieraccording to the ranking.

Therefore, mobile station apparatuses having the large amount of userdata to be transmitted from the base station apparatus arepreferentially allowed to use subcarriers in good propagation states astheir feedback information subcarriers. The mobile station apparatuseshaving the large amount of user data to be transmitted from the basestation apparatus necessarily often transmit feedback information suchas ACK/NACK, and by giving priority to use of feedback informationsubcarriers in good propagation states, it is possible to improve theuplink capacity of the overall radio communication system. Furthermore,since the feedback information of mobile station apparatuses having thelarge amount of data and amount of retransmission is less likely toproduce errors, it is possible to minimize packet errors due to feedbackinformation errors or a reduction in the downlink throughput due toretransmission.

Thus, in this embodiment, mobile station apparatuses are ranked indescending order of the amount of user data to be transmitted from thebase station apparatus and higher-ranking mobile station apparatuses arepreferentially assigned subcarriers in good propagation states to bedesignated as feedback information subcarriers, and therefore, it ispossible to suppress an increase in transmit power of feedbackinformation of mobile station apparatuses which frequently transmitfeedback information, further increase the effect of suppressinginterference with other channels and other cells and improve thethroughput of the overall radio communication system.

Embodiment 3

Embodiment 3 of the present invention is characterized in that a basestation apparatus assigns transmit power necessary for transmission offeedback information to a mobile station apparatus.

FIG. 10 is a block diagram showing the configuration of a base stationapparatus according to Embodiment 3. In the same figure, the same partsas those in FIG. 1 and FIG. 8 are assigned the same reference numeralsand explanations thereof will be omitted. The base station apparatusshown in FIG. 10 is provided with control CH transmission section 110,user CH transmission section 120, multiplexing section 130, S/Pconversion section 140, IFFT section 150, GI insertion section 160,radio transmission section 170, radio reception section 210, GIelimination section 220, FFT section 230, P/S conversion section 240, FBinformation reception section 250, PL signal reception section 260, FBSCdetermining section 270 a, data amount measuring section 500 andtransmit power information generation section 600. That is, the basestation apparatus according to this embodiment corresponds to the basestation apparatus according to Embodiment 2 with transmit powerinformation generation section 600 added.

Transmit power information generation section 600 generates transmitpower information of feedback information based on required quality ofpredetermined feedback information and reception quality of a feedbackinformation subcarrier determined by FBSC determining section 270 a.More specifically, transmit power information generation section 600calculates a difference between reception quality of the feedbackinformation subcarrier determined by FBSC determining section 270 a andrequired quality of feedback information and generates transmit powerinformation to report such required transmit power that causes thisdifference to become 0 to the mobile station apparatus.

FIG. 11 is a block diagram showing the configuration of a mobile stationapparatus according to Embodiment 3. In the same figure, the same partsas those in FIG. 4 are assigned the same reference numerals andexplanations thereof will be omitted. The mobile station apparatus shownin FIG. 11 is provided with radio reception section 310, GI eliminationsection 320, FFT section 330, P/S conversion section 340, control CHreception section 350, user CH reception section 360, PL signalreception section 370, FB information transmission section 410,multiplexing section 420, SC assignment section 430, S/P conversionsection 440, IFFT section 450, GI insertion section 460, radiotransmission section 470 and transmit power setting section 700. That isto say, the mobile station apparatus according to this embodimentcorresponds to the mobile station apparatus according to Embodiment 1with the transmit power setting section 700 added.

Transmit power setting section 700 sets transmit power of a feedbackinformation subcarrier assigned to feedback information by SC assignmentsection 430 according to the transmit power information sent from thebase station apparatus.

Next, the operations of the base station apparatus and mobile stationapparatus configured as shown above will be explained.

First, as in the case of Embodiment 2, the base station apparatusdetermines a feedback information subcarrier to be used by each mobilestation apparatus. Furthermore, transmit power information generationsection 600 calculates required transmit power of each feedbackinformation subcarrier and generates transmit power information.

Required transmit power is calculated as follows. That is to say, when afeedback information subcarrier is determined by FBSC determiningsection 270 a according to reception quality for subcarriers, thereception quality of the feedback information subcarrier is output totransmit power information generation section 600. Then, transmit powerinformation generation section 600 calculates a difference between therequired quality of feedback information and the reception quality ofthe feedback information subcarrier and calculates such transmit powerof the feedback information subcarrier that causes this difference tobecome 0 as the required transmit power. However, the required transmitpower calculated here is relative power with respect to uplink pilotpower.

Transmit power information for reporting the calculated requiredtransmit power to the mobile station apparatus is generated and sent tothe mobile station apparatus together with FBSC information as in thecase of Embodiment 1.

The mobile station apparatus carries out reception processing in thesame way as Embodiment 1, FBSC information is input to SC assignmentsection 430 and transmit power information is input to transmit powersetting section 700. SC assignment section 430 assigns the subcarrierspecified by the FBSC information to feedback information including CQIand ACK/NACK or the like and transmit power setting section 700 sets thetransmit power of the subcarrier assigned to the feedback information tothe transmit power specified by the transmit power information. As inthe case of Embodiment 1, the feedback information is transmitted to thebase station apparatus.

The base station apparatus carries out reception processing of thefeedback information, and adaptive modulation and retransmission controlbased on the feedback information as in the case of Embodiment 1. Atthis time, since the feedback information has been transmitted withtransmit power in accordance with the transmit power informationtransmitted from the base station apparatus, the reception quality ofthe feedback information satisfies the required quality and it ispossible to perform accurate adaptive modulation and retransmissioncontrol.

Thus, according to this embodiment, the base station apparatuscalculates required transmit power of feedback information, transmits itto the mobile station apparatus together with FBSC information, themobile station apparatus selects a feedback information subcarrieraccording to the FBSC information, sets the transmit power of thefeedback information subcarrier to the required transmit powercalculated by the base station apparatus, and therefore it is possibleto set the transmit power of the feedback information properly, suppressinterference of the feedback information with other channels and othercells and carry out adaptive modulation and retransmission control usingthe feedback information accurately.

Embodiment 4

Embodiment 4 of the present invention is characterized in that when aTDD scheme using the same frequency band for uplink and downlink isadopted, a mobile station apparatus determines a feedback informationsubcarrier and spreads this subcarrier using a spreading code for thefeedback information subcarrier.

FIG. 12 is a block diagram showing the configuration of a base stationapparatus according to Embodiment 4. In the same figure, the same partsas those in FIG. 1 are assigned the same reference numerals andexplanations thereof will be omitted. The base station apparatus shownin FIG. 12 is provided with control CH transmission section 110, user CHtransmission section 120, multiplexing section 130, S/P conversionsection 140, IFFT section 150, GI insertion section 160, radiotransmission section 170, radio reception section 210, GI eliminationsection 220, FFT section 230, FB information reception section 250,despreading section 800 and SC decision section 810. That is, the basestation apparatus according to this embodiment corresponds to the basestation apparatus according to Embodiment 1 with P/S conversion section240, PL signal reception section 260 and FBSC determining section 270removed, and despreading section 800 and SC decision section 810 added.

Despreading section 800 desrpeads subcarriers using a spreading code forfeedback information used to spread a feedback information subcarrier.

SC decision section 810 outputs a subcarrier having the highestcorrelation value as a result of the dispreading by despreading section800 to FB information reception section 250 as a feedback informationsubcarrier.

In this embodiment, the mobile station apparatus selects the feedbackinformation subcarrier and transmits feedback information, and thereforethe base station apparatus is not capable of deciding on whichsubcarrier the feedback information is mapped. However, if the feedbackinformation subcarrier is spread using a spreading code for the feedbackinformation, it is possible to detect the feedback informationsubcarrier by carrying out despreading using the same spreading code.

FIG. 13 is a block diagram showing the configuration of a mobile stationapparatus according to Embodiment 4. In the same figure, the same partsas those in FIG. 4 are assigned the same reference numerals andexplanations thereof will be omitted. The mobile station apparatus shownin FIG. 13 is provided with radio reception section 310, GI eliminationsection 320, FFT section 330, P/S conversion section 340, control CHreception section 350, user CH reception section 360, PL signalreception section 370, FB information transmission section 410,multiplexing section 420, SC assignment section 430 a, S/P conversionsection 440, IFFT section 450, GI insertion section 460, radiotransmission section 470, FBSC selection section 900 and spreadingsection 910. That is, the mobile station apparatus according to thisembodiment corresponds to the mobile station apparatus according toEmbodiment 1 with SC assignment section 430 replaced by SC assignmentsection 430 a, and FBSC selection section 900 and spreading section 910added.

SC assignment section 430 a assigns a feedback information subcarrierselected by FBSC selection section 900 to multiplexed data includingfeedback information.

FBSC selection section 900 determines a subcarrier having the highestreception quality as a feedback information subcarrier based on a resultof reception quality measurement of a pilot signal of subcarriers. FBSCselection section 900 selects a feedback information subcarrier for theuplink based on the reception quality of pilot signals transmitted onthe downlink, but since this embodiment presupposes a TDD scheme, thesame frequency band is used for the uplink and downlink and the samefrequency is used for downlink subcarriers and uplink subcarriers. Inother words, a fading variation on the downlink is equal to a fadingvariation on the uplink, and therefore FBSC selection section 900selects a subcarrier in an optimum propagation state as the feedbackinformation subcarrier.

Spreading section 910 spreads data of subcarriers. At this time,spreading section 910 spreads the feedback information subcarrier usinga feedback information spreading code.

Next, the operations of the base station apparatus and mobile stationapparatus configured as shown above will be explained.

First, the operation after control data and user data are transmittedfrom the base station apparatus until they are received by the mobilestation apparatus will be explained.

The control data and user data are coded and modulated by control CHtransmission section 110 and user CH transmission section 120respectively. The control data and user data are then multiplexed bymultiplexing section 130, S/P-converted by S/P conversion section 140and subjected to an inverse fast Fourier transform by IFFT section 150and thereby transformed into OFDM data. A guard interval is insertedinto the OFDM data by GI insertion section 160, the signal is thensubjected to predetermined radio transmission processing by radiotransmission section 170 and transmitted to the mobile station apparatusvia the antenna. These operations are the same as those in Embodiment 1.

The signal transmitted from the base station apparatus is received byradio reception section 310 via the antenna of the mobile stationapparatus and subjected to predetermined radio reception processing. Theguard interval of the received signal is removed by GI eliminationsection 320 and the signal is subjected to a fast Fourier transform byFFT section 330 and P/S-converted by P/S conversion section 340 intoserial data.

Then, as in the case of Embodiment 1, control data is output by controlCH reception section 350, user data is output by user CH receptionsection 360 and the error detection result is output to FB informationtransmission section 410.

Furthermore, PL signal reception section 370 outputs the receptionquality measurement result of pilot signals to FB informationtransmission section and FBSC selection section 900. In this embodiment,pilot signals are included in all subcarriers and PL signal receptionsection 370 outputs the reception quality of a pilot signal forsubcarriers to FBSC selection section 900.

Next, the operation after feedback information is transmitted from themobile station apparatus until it is received by the base stationapparatus will be explained.

When the reception quality for subcarriers is output to FBSC selectionsection 900, the subcarrier having the highest reception quality isselected as a feedback information subcarrier. The selected feedbackinformation subcarrier is reported to SC assignment section 430 a.

On the other hand, as in the case of Embodiment 1, feedback informationsuch as CQI and ACK/NACK is generated by FB information transmissionsection 410 and multiplexed with other transmission data (not shown) bymultiplexing section 420.

The multiplexed data including feedback information is assigned asubcarrier by SC assignment section 430 a. Here, the subcarrier assignedto the feedback information by SC assignment section 430 a is thefeedback information subcarrier selected by FBSC selection section 900.In other words, the subcarrier assigned to the feedback information isthe subcarrier in an optimum propagation state.

As in the case of Embodiment 1, the multiplexed data including feedbackinformation is S/P-converted by S/P conversion section 440 and the samenumber of pieces of parallel data as subcarriers are output to spreadingsection 910. The output pieces of parallel data are spread using theirrespective spreading codes. At this time, the data of the feedbackinformation subcarrier is spread using a predetermined spreading codefor the feedback information.

The spread pieces of parallel data are subjected to an inverse fastFourier transform by IFFT section 450 and thereby transformed into OFDMdata, and the OFDM data is inserted a guard interval by GI insertionsection 460, subjected to predetermined radio transmission processing byradio transmission section 470 and transmitted to the base stationapparatus via the antenna.

The signal transmitted from the mobile station apparatus is received byradio reception section 210 via the antenna of the base stationapparatus and subjected to predetermined radio reception processing. Theguard interval of the received signal is removed by GI eliminationsection 220 and the signal is then subjected to a fast Fourier transformby FFT section 230 and data of subcarriers are output.

The data of subcarriers are despread by despreading section 800 usingthe same spreading code as that used for spreading. Furthermore, data ofall the subcarriers are despread using spreading codes for feedbackinformation and the dispreading result is output to SC decision section810.

SC decision section 810 decides that the subcarrier with the highestcorrelation value which is the result of dispreading using the spreadingcode for feedback information is the feedback information subcarrier.

Since the feedback information subcarrier has been selected by themobile station apparatus, additional information about which subcarrierhas been selected as the feedback information subcarrier shouldoriginally be transmitted to the base station apparatus. However, inthis embodiment, the mobile station apparatus spreads the feedbackinformation subcarrier using a predetermined spreading code for feedbackinformation, and therefore the base station apparatus is capable ofdetecting the subcarrier having the highest correlation value using thisspreading code for feedback information as the feedback informationsubcarrier.

Hereafter, the feedback information subcarrier is output to FBinformation reception section 250 as in the case of Embodiment 1 andsubjected to adaptive modulation and retransmission control based on thefeedback information.

Thus, according to this embodiment, the mobile station apparatus selectsthe downlink subcarrier having the highest reception quality as theuplink feedback information subcarrier, and therefore the base stationapparatus need not transmit information about the feedback informationsubcarrier, and it is possible to thereby prevent the downlink capacityfrom reducing. And since the mobile station apparatus spreads thefeedback information using a predetermined spreading code for feedbackinformation and maps the spread feedback information about the feedbackinformation subcarrier, the base station apparatus can detect thefeedback information subcarrier through the dispreading processing usingthe spreading code for feedback information even when there is noadditional information.

Embodiment 3 may also be applied to Embodiment 1. In this case, evenwhen the downlink FBSC information is received by error and the mobilestation apparatus transmits the feedback information using a subcarrierwhich is different from that of the FBSC information, the base stationapparatus detects the subcarrier on which the feedback information isactually mapped through dispreading using the spreading code forfeedback information, and therefore the base station apparatus canreceive the feedback information correctly. When the feedbackinformation is received correctly, it is possible to prevent the amountof retransmission from increasing and improve the system capacity andthroughput.

Furthermore, the above described embodiments explains the case where amobile station apparatus transmits feedback information to a basestation apparatus, but the present invention can also be applied to thecase where a base station apparatus transmits feedback information to amobile station apparatus.

A first aspect of the multicarrier communication apparatus according tothe present invention adopts a configuration including a receptionsection that receives a multicarrier signal with data mapped on aplurality of carriers, a measuring section that measures receptionquality of the plurality of carriers and a determining section thatdetermines a carrier having the best measured reception quality as afeedback information carrier.

According to this configuration, a carrier having the best receptionquality is designated out of the plurality of carriers of themulticarrier signal as the feedback information carrier, and thereforeit is not necessary to increase transmit power when transmittingfeedback information generally having high required quality and possibleto suppress interference of the feedback information with other channelsand alleviate a reduction in the channel capacity.

A second aspect of the multicarrier communication apparatus of thepresent invention adopts a configuration in which, when there are aplurality of communicating stations, the determining sectionpreferentially assigns the carrier having the best reception quality toa communicating station having the large amount of data to betransmitted from the subject apparatus and designates as the carrier afeedback information carrier for the communicating station.

According to this configuration, feedback information carriers havinghigh reception quality are preferentially assigned to communicatingstations having the large amount of data to be transmitted from thesubject apparatus, and therefore it is possible to suppress interferenceof feedback information from communicating stations having the largeamount of received data and large amount of feedback information withother channels and improve the channel capacity of the overall radiocommunication system. Furthermore, errors are less likely to occur infeedback information of communicating stations having the large amountof data and large amount of retransmission, and therefore it is possibleto minimize packet errors due to errors in feedback information and areduction in throughput of the channels from the subject apparatus tothe communicating stations due to retransmissions.

A third aspect of the multicarrier communication apparatus of thepresent invention adopts a configuration in which the determiningsection determines the feedback information carrier based on amulticarrier signal received immediately before transmitting thefeedback information.

According to this configuration, a feedback information carrier isdetermined based on a multicarrier signal received immediately beforetransmitting the feedback information, and therefore it is possible todetermine the feedback information carrier according to the latestpropagation situation even when the propagation situation changesrapidly and further suppress interference of the feedback informationwith other channels.

A fourth aspect of the multicarrier communication apparatus of thepresent invention adopts a configuration, further including atransmission section that transmits information about feedbackinformation carrier in which the reception section receives amulticarrier signal with feedback information mapped on the feedbackinformation carrier.

According to this configuration, information about the feedbackinformation carrier is transmitted, that is, the receiving side of thefeedback information determines the feedback information carrier, andtherefore it is possible to determine a feedback information carrierhaving high quality even based on an FDD (Frequency Division Duplex)scheme in which multicarrier signals having different carrierconfigurations are transmitted on the uplink and downlink.

A fifth aspect of the multicarrier communication apparatus of thepresent invention adopts a configuration, further including acalculation section that calculates required transmit power so that thereception quality of the feedback information carrier becomes therequired quality, in which the transmission section transmits thecalculated required transmit power and information about the feedbackinformation carrier.

According to this configuration, information about the required transmitpower whose required quality is the reception quality of the feedbackinformation carrier is transmitted, and therefore the communicatingstations is capable of setting the transmit power of feedbackinformation properly and further suppressing interference of thefeedback information with other channels.

A sixth aspect of the multicarrier communication apparatus of thepresent invention adopts a configuration in which the calculationsection calculates the required transmit power based on a differencebetween the reception quality of the feedback information carrier andthe required quality.

According to this configuration, the required transmit power iscalculated based on a difference between the reception quality of theactual feedback information carrier and the required quality, andtherefore it is possible to easily calculate accurate required transmitpower.

A seventh aspect of the multicarrier communication apparatus of thepresent invention adopts a configuration further including atransmission section that transmits feedback information using thefeedback information carrier.

According to this configuration, feedback information is transmittedusing the feedback information carrier, and therefore it is notnecessary to report information about the feedback information carrierbased on a TDD (Time Division Duplex) scheme in which a multicarriersignal in the same carrier configuration is transmitted on the uplinkand downlink to a communicating station and alleviate a reduction in thechannel capacity.

An eighth aspect of the multicarrier communication apparatus of thepresent invention adopts a configuration further including a spreadingsection that spreads the feedback information carrier using apredetermined spreading code for feedback information.

According to this configuration, the feedback information carrier isspread using a spreading code for feedback information, and thereforethe receiving side of the feedback information despreads themulticarrier signal using the spreading code for feedback information,and can thereby easily detect the feedback information carrier.

A base station apparatus of the present invention adopts a configurationincluding the multicarrier communication apparatus according to any oneof the above described aspects.

According to this configuration, the base station apparatus can realizeoperations and effects similar to those of the multicarriercommunication apparatus according to any one of the above describedaspects.

A mobile station apparatus of the present invention adopts aconfiguration including the multicarrier communication apparatusaccording to any one of the above described aspects.

According to this configuration, the mobile station apparatus canrealize operations and effects similar to those of the multicarriercommunication apparatus according to any one of the above describedaspects.

A feedback information communication method according to the presentinvention includes a step of receiving a multicarrier signal with datamapped on a plurality of carriers, a step of measuring reception qualityof the plurality of carriers and a step of determining a carrier havingthe best measured reception quality as a feedback information carrier.

According to this method, a carrier having the best measured receptionquality of the plurality of carriers of the multicarrier signal isdesignated as the feedback information carrier, and therefore it is notnecessary for increasing transmit power when transmitting feedbackinformation generally having high required quality, and it is possibleto suppress interference of the feedback information with other channelsand alleviate a reduction in the channel capacity.

The present application is based on Japanese Patent Application No.2003-191293 filed on Jul. 3, 2003, entire content of which is expresslyincorporated herein by reference.

INDUSTRIAL APPLICABILITY

The present invention is suitable for use in a communication apparatusbased on a multicarrier communication scheme.

1. A multicarrier communication apparatus that controls transmission to a communicating station based on feedback information from said communicating station, comprising: a reception section that receives a multicarrier signal with data mapped on a plurality of carriers; a measuring section that measures reception quality of said plurality of carriers; and a determining section that determines a carrier having the best measured reception quality as said feedback information carrier.
 2. The multicarrier communication apparatus according to claim 1, wherein when there are a plurality of communicating stations, said determining section preferentially assigns the carrier having the best reception quality to a communicating station having a large amount of data to be transmitted from the subject apparatus and designates said carrier as the feedback information carrier for said communicating station.
 3. The multicarrier communication apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said determining section determines said feedback information carrier based on a multicarrier signal received immediately before transmitting the feedback information.
 4. The multicarrier communication apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a transmission section that transmits information about said feedback information carrier, wherein said reception section receives a multicarrier signal with feedback information mapped on said feedback information carrier.
 5. The multicarrier communication apparatus according to claim 4, further comprising a calculation section that calculates required transmit power so that the reception quality of said feedback information carrier becomes a required quality, wherein said transmission section transmits the calculated required transmit power and information about said feedback information carrier.
 6. The multicarrier communication apparatus according to claim 5, wherein said calculation section calculates the required transmit power based on a difference between the reception quality of said feedback information carrier and said required quality.
 7. The multicarrier communication apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a transmission section that transmits feedback information using said feedback information carrier.
 8. The multicarrier communication apparatus according to claim 7, further comprising a spreading section that spreads said feedback information carrier using a predetermined spreading code for feedback information.
 9. A base station apparatus comprising the multicarrier communication apparatus according to claim
 1. 10. A mobile station apparatus comprising the multicarrier communication apparatus according to claim
 1. 11. A feedback information communication method used in a communication system that controls transmission to a communicating station based on feedback information from said communicating station, comprising the steps of: receiving a multicarrier signal with data mapped on a plurality of carriers from said communicating station; measuring reception quality of said plurality of carriers; and determining a carrier having the best measured reception quality as said feedback information carrier.
 12. The multicarrier communications apparatus according to claim 1 that said feedback information includes at least one of CQI (Channel Quality Indicator), ACK signal and NACK signal. 